Pit lids or similar covers are used to cover in-ground pits. They often need to embody information as to what the contents of the pit relate to, warning signs, identification of origin or identification of relevant organisations, or contact details for emergency situations. Additionally, it may be desirable to add some aesthetic appeal to what is otherwise a purely utilitarian object.
Improving the aesthetic appeal of a pit lid may increase the efficacy of conveying information embodied in the pit lid. At present, logos, messages or other information, including product information, are applied to pit lids by imprinting the logo or message onto the lid or by spray painting a stencil onto the lid. Stenciling involves spraying the covers overlaid with one or more stencils with paint. This process is limited to basic mono-colour images. The paint has a short lifespan before wearing off. The process is simple but requires high labour inputs. Imprinting the pit lids can be effected either by using a mould, which is costly for short production runs, or by placing stickers under the final layer of non-skid coating and then removing those stickers by hand after the application of the non-skid resin coating. While this is a practical way to deal with short production runs, it is very labour intensive and the consumables cost of the stickers is high. Resulting designs are limited to simple graphics or wording.
Overlays of coloured resins have also been used to provide simple multicoloured pit lids. These methods are costly in terms of raw materials and they do not allow any complexity in the graphic designs. Overlaying coloured resins is used when the non-skid resin layer is applied. This in effect involves painting different coloured resins onto the upper surface of the pit lid. While this method can result in a simple multi-coloured appearance for the pit lid it does not provide for complex graphics and the appearance is somewhat crude, which detracts from the efficacy of the attempted communication.
It is an object of the present invention to ameliorate some or all of the foregoing problems.